Aaaahhhh! Another gym cringe moment…

Every time I see something like this, all my own weight loss struggles, feelings of hardship, dread, exasperation, disappointment at trying all different things that never worked and just plain hopelessness come flooding back.

I just feel it. I feel for the person, I feel angry at society, I feel disdain for the fitness and weight loss industry who are preying on these people and I just feel frustrated that I can’t help more people faster!

This post covers some ground that I have previously covered but because I keep seeing it over and over, it makes me want to keep saying it over and over in a slightly different way, so that maybe people get it and stop all this unnecessary suffering. It’s driving me crazy.

I was out on my daily walk this morning passing a gym (the same gym actually which was the subject of my In the Mud post – typical…when a 20-something trainer was showing a 50-something lady overweight by about 30kgs, a section of a circuit where she had to strap a harness around her middle and run with a tyre dragging behind her.

Run. With a tyre. For a beginner. Are you kidding me? No way!

I recognised the look on her face which was one of initial bemusement, turning to concern, switching to dread and finally a ‘what the f#$% am I doing here?’ disbelief on her face.

Is she likely to keep this up?

Is she likely to bound out of bed in the morning thinking, “yeah gimme more of that?”

Not on your nelly.

Clearly physically she was not up to it, clearly this was a woman who hasn’t done any exercise for many years, clearly this was ‘all kinds of wrong’ for her and yet the cry among the motivation camp is…

Push through the pain

When you reach your goal it will be worth it

Motivate yourself to do it

No excuses

Success isn’t given its earned

Sore – the most satisfying pain

Sore – but so worth it

It’s going to hurt, you will want to give up, but you won’t this time…

When my body shouts stop, my mind screams never

If it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you

And it goes on and on and on, off the cliff to another fail, more disappointment because you failed again, are still overweight and feel kind of beaten up, humiliated, dejected and demoralised by the whole experience. It’s like they are trying to take you from a sedentary lifestyle at zero to 100 in one circuit training, tyre-pulling session. All kinds of wrong and never gonna happen. Yet people are programmed to believe that this is the way forward.

Even the reality shows follow this kind of pain to gain mentality, people screaming, crying, falling over in agony, trainers trying to push them harder, starvation diets to lose the weight in the quickest amount of time.

Prime time TV.

No wonder people think this is how it is supposed to be. And yet a quick Google search reveals that 85% of these contestants put it all back on. All that pain for nothing. Well nothing for a majority of the contestants and the millions who try to emulate them but lots of cash for the network, the program, the trainers and one or two who make it through the nonsense.

The method is what’s crazy wrong and yet they hang it on overweight people for not being determined enough, being lazy, not having willpower, not respecting themselves, being too soft, quitting when it gets too hard etc.

Aaaaahhhhh!!! It drives me mad. Why? Because I was one of those overweight people that used to cop this barrage of crap and maybe it’s motivating for some to be picked on enough and feel bad enough about yourself that you finally do something, but mostly it just makes you feel worse than you already do. It likely makes you eat more for comfort and less likely to put yourself out there in the firing line of criticism even trying to exercise how they describe it should be. A big fat no thanks. Pun intended.

For all those overweight people who are still struggling, let me tell you this…the way forward to where you want to be is not supposed to be painful, torturous, humiliating hard – that method is wrong, damaging and fails 85-90% of the time.

The method that works for the long haul is in slow, tiny steps and changes while learning lots along the way about yourself, how your mind works, the effect of different food, how your body feels and may involve a minor bit of discomfort in the form of puffing a little more for a few minutes while walking up that hill, or feeling a little strange when you make a change from sugar to stevia or not eating bread any more but on the discomfort scale, it should be a 2/10 not 15/10 where your body is shaking, convulsing, heaving, nearly passing out from hunger and basically abusing yourself.

It does take persistence, commitment, being open-minded and having a willingness to change but pain and suffering – pfffft, no way. And how do I know? Because that’s how I did it, without pain, without drama, without the boot camp or the gym. When I got to my goal weight, I didn’t even know it. Completely missed all that hard work part – oops!

Please don’t suffer any more, it’s not necessary and if you know anyone else who is still on the merry-go-round and doing it tough, please send them my way.

Group hug!

Love and sparkles.

Kristy xxx

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